


The Spy Who Found Me

by spyglass



Category: Gallagher Girls Series - Ally Carter
Genre: 5 Times, F/M, Gen, Yuletide 2013
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 15:28:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spyglass/pseuds/spyglass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Macey McHenry finds a new student for the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, and how she finds herself along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Spy Who Found Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [daisysusan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisysusan/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide! I hope you enjoy :)

i.

The first time it happens, Macey isn't even looking.

She's supposed to be on vacation, if she can even call it that. (And for the record, she wouldn't.) She's only visiting New York to accompany her parents to a few fundraisers and charity auctions, and in her book, that's a lot more work than her actual job. The task of protecting teenagers from unknown security threats pales in comparison to an evening of playing Macey McHenry, senator's daughter and America's Almost Sweetheart.

Macey stops in one of three Starbucks on the block, more to collect herself before the inevitable confrontation with her mother over which dress to wear to that night's event than anything else, when she catches sight of it. It's nothing more than a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye, but she has spent a lifetime noticing things that others don't.

"You should probably give that back."

"Excuse me?" The girl turns, revealing a blue and grey checked uniform, perfect hair, perfect makeup, and a scowl that can't quite disguise her delicate features the way she probably wants it to. Macey doesn't need more than her first quick glance to learn everything she needs to know. Even if she hadn't been trained to do exactly that, Macey knows this girl because in so many ways she _was_ this girl.

"The phone you just swiped from that table over there. You should give it back."

To the girl's credit, she doesn't deny that she swiped the phone, but she doesn't make a move to return it either. "Wait," she says suddenly, the realization evident in the slight crease in her forehead. "I know you. You're Macey McHenry."

"I am," Macey replies. Before she's even aware of what she's saying, Macey hears herself add, "I'd like to talk to you about your education."

"My education?" the girl repeats, somewhat incredulously. "I don't think so."

Macey laughs. "Look kid. I just caught you stealing a cell phone for kicks and it's not even 2:00 on Friday afternoon. I can call the cops, or you can come with me and I can tell you about a school that just might be looking for someone exactly like you. Your choice, but you have about five seconds to make it."

The girl - who later introduces herself as Charli - makes her decision before Macey can count to three.

 

 

ii.

The second time it happens, it's not an accident.

In the wake of her first success, Macey watches everyone, waiting, on the lookout for someone else that she can help. For someone else who just needs to be given another chance. The reports on Charli's progress are excellent after only a few months, and the sense of pride Macey gets with each update is overwhelming.

So when she first observes the transfer student in her protectee's physics class, she knows exactly what it is she's seeing.

Amira is in many ways the exact opposite of Macey; in fact, the person she reminds Macey of most is Liz. Amira transferred not because her old school kicked her out, but because they simply did not have anything more to offer that could possibly challenge her. She exudes a quiet confidence in class, but bubbles with nervous energy in the hallways, in gym, at the lunch table.

Amira needs more than just academic challenges in her life.

Macey knows exactly where Amira belongs, but she waits a few weeks, watches, just to be sure.

(It's not that Macey doubts herself; rather, the opposite. She's afraid of coming on too hard, too soon, of scaring Amira away. If it's one thing Macey McHenry knows how to do, it's how to be exactly what other people need her to be.)

So Macey bides her time, waits as patiently as she can. (Hey, she never claimed she was _good_ at being patient.) When the time is finally right, Amira's eyes light up at the suggestion and it's a different pride than it was with Charli, but it's pride all the same.

Macey also sends a silent prayer of thanksgiving that, in her experience, she has observed Amira to be at least a little less accident prone than Liz was. And that's probably best for everyone involved.

 

 

iii.

By the third time, it's not that Macey is surprised. It's just that, well, she's a little bit preoccupied at the time.

The thing is, it's easy to forget in the comings and goings of everyday life that what Macey does is _dangerous_. But when someone decides that the best way to get to the president is to go through the president's daughter, Macey ends up in a scuffle that involves outmaneuvering several guns-for-hire in a dark alleyway - to her dismay because really, how much more cliche could it get? She supposes she should be grateful this time no one had to escape from any rooftops.

No one is seriously hurt, but they're all a little scraped up and protocol dictates that they have to be examined. So Macey rounds up all of her agents and the first daughter and they head to the GW emergency room, hoping to beat the news reports there.

It takes hours in the ER after the first daughter is examined and sent home with a clean bill of health and some fresh agents. Macey refuses to be treated herself until she's assured that everyone else is alright. By the time she's arguing with the doctor that she really doesn't need that x-ray, the attempted kidnapping is the leading news story all over the world.

When _he_ gets to the hospital, Macey has already been treated (and x-rayed) and released, but she can't leave yet because the press has the place surrounded and she would really rather not have too many photographs circulating of her given her current appearance. Just Defeated Three Trained Kidnappers Single-Handledly isn't nearly as attractive in reality as the stories make it out to be. No thank you, no press photos for her.

She's seen him over the past few years, of course, at parties and fundraisers and even once when the president spoke at Yale, but they haven't _really_ seen each other since the fallout from the Circle of Cavan. Still, she's thought of him more than she would care to admit, so she blinks twice to make sure he's really there.

"Preston?" she asks, lowering her voice in an unsuccessful attempt to steady it.

"Agent McHenry," he nods formally in greeting, but then he flashes a bright grin at her and he looks like her Preston again. "I wanted to make sure the hero of the hour actually allowed herself to be treated. I hear you put up quite a fuss about some x-rays…"

"Completely unnecessary," she scoffs.

His expression softens. "I was worried about you, Macey. I'm glad you're alright."

"It's going to take more than a few hired guns to bring me down."

"Don't I know it," he laughs. "So, what do you think about blowing this joint and getting some dinner?"

There's nothing Macey wants to do more, but she's Macey McHenry and not Cammie Morgan so the waiting press still presents something of an obstacle. "I just, uh. I need to wait until the press secretary is ready to give her statement so that the vultures outside will disperse and I can sneak away."

"No," he says, reaching out and taking her hand with much more authority than teenage Preston ever would have. "I'd like to think I learned a few things from an old friend, and I decided a contingency plan might be a good idea. I got special permission to land my helicopter on the roof. C'mon, Mace. I'm getting you out of here."

Being with Preston is surprisingly easy, Macey realizes, falling into step beside him as they head to the back elevators. In the past, she had been afraid of what it might mean and how she might or might not be fulfilling other people's expectations, but now it somehow manages to be both familiar and exciting, and she isn't afraid of anyone's expectations but her own.

"Hold on," she says, right before they reach the elevators. There's a young volunteer down the hall who just took control of a violent patient twice her size, and that's definitely something worth investigating. When she adds, "There's someone I need to go talk to. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes," Preston seems to understand exactly what she means.

"Okay. I've waited years for this. I can wait fifteen more minutes."

But before she goes to investigate, she leans up and kisses him soundly. Duty might be calling, but she doesn't really want to wait the fifteen minutes.

 

 

iv.

The fourth time isn't really the fourth time. Not exactly.

After Charli, Amira, and Pauline, Macey approaches Abby, and with the help of their fellow Gallagher Girls, they develop a program to recruit more non-traditional students. Liz has coded for just about every possible scenario, and Macey is already keeping tabs on the girls who will be transferring in the upcoming fall. The program isn't perfect, though, which is how Macey ends up meeting Abby at a high school in the middle of Idaho on a particularly cold Thursday in the middle of March.

"How's the target?" Abby asks immediately, foregoing any greeting or signs of familiarity. They're hidden in an empty room that Macey has already swept for bugs, but they have to keep a professional distance for the sake of their covers. To anyone who might be watching, they would appear simply to be colleagues and nothing more.

"She's a candidate." Macey pretends to shuffle the papers on her desk; her current cover is as a substitute teacher, which works because no one would ever expect to find Macey McHenry teaching high school physics in wherever-she-is, Idaho. "She'll be interested," she adds with confidence.

"I'll watch her myself over the next few days, but I don't doubt that," Abby agrees, the hint of a smile playing at her lips. "You have a real gift for this, Macey."

"Usually I just happen to be in the right place at the right time."

"Not true." Abby answers with an emphatic shake of her head, breaking character for just a few seconds. "This is your project, Macey. I know you like what you're doing now, but if you're ever looking for a change… Well, who better to secure the future of Gallagher Academy?"

Macey doesn't look up from her papers when she says, "I'll think about it."

In spite of herself, she already is.

 

 

v.

At some point along the way, Macey stops keeping count.

No one was more surprised than she was when she started identifying transfer students for the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, but like in all things, once she hits the ground running, she simply expects to succeed. Three years after she first met Charli in that Starbucks on the Upper East Side, Macey watches with pride as Charli speaks at graduation, clapping and cheering just a little louder than the rest of the crowd and sharing smiles with Preston, who is firmly entrenched at her side. They can't linger after the ceremony, though, as much as they would like to; they're due back in D.C. for the first of several parties celebrating their engagement.

The party itself is really no different from the countless charity galas and political fundraisers Macey and Preston have spent their whole lives attending. This party is for other people and not for them, but as she watches Preston converse with some of his old school friends, laughing easily in spite of all that happened their senior year, Macey finds she doesn't mind.

"So there's a rumor going around that you proposed to Preston, not the other way around," Cammie says off-handedly as the two girls meet at the bar. Cammie may be trying to hide her inquiry the way she hides herself, but Macey knows her friend well enough to hear the implied question.

"No comment," Macey defers, but then gives her friend a conspiratorial wink. "If I confirm or deny, that takes away the mystery. The truth can never live up to the rumors."

Except that maybe they kept talking about getting married but Preston kept not asking her. And maybe she got tired of waiting for him to ask so she announced that they would be getting married on this date, and he could ask her or not ask her but that was what was happening.

And maybe he admitted that it wasn't that he didn't want to ask her, but he couldn't settle on a ring. (There's the family ring of course, but with his father and the Circle of Cavan, he thought they deserved a new start. The problem is that selecting jewelry is a serious business, especially when you're shopping for someone with extremely particular tastes.) So he did ask her, eventually, but the rumors aren't exactly wrong, either.

Bex and Liz and even Abby will all ask about the rumor over the course of the evening, and it's not that Macey doesn't want to share things with these women who have become her family, it's just that, this time, she wants to keep this one thing for herself.

"I see," Cammie says finally, drawing Macey from her thoughts. "Preston is just lucky you already have experience planning weddings. This part will be easy for you."

Macey laughs as Cammie wanders off to find Zach. It's peculiar, though, that Rachel said the same thing earlier that very afternoon.

Macey raises her glass of champagne to her lips and carefully scans the ballroom before her. She needs to find Preston; they have guests to entertain and appearances to keep up before they can go back to their apartment and just be themselves again. But first, she's sure she just saw something in the Sinclair's oldest daughter, and she needs to go investigate.

After all, a true Gallagher Girl never takes a night off.


End file.
